Digital Audio Tape

Common card · No. 215823

Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a discontinued digital recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a Compact Cassette, using 3.81-millimetre (0.150 in), commonly referred to as four-millimetre, magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but it is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. The recording is digital rather than analog. DAT can record at sampling rates equal to, as well as higher and lower than, that of a CD (44.1, 48, and 32 kHz respectively) at 16 bits. Similar to most formats of videocassette, a DAT cassette may only be recorded and played in one direction, unlike an analog compact audio cassette. Many DAT recorders had the capability to embed program numbers and IDs into the recording, which can be used to select an individual track, like on a CD player. Although intended as a replacement for analog audio compact cassettes, the format was never widely adopted by consumers because of its expense,...

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